Once

Felix lies on the mattress beside Zelda, who sobs until she falls asleep. Then he works on a written version of his story for the Nazi officer until he falls asleep too. Barney shakes him awake, says they’ve run out of water, and asks Felix to help get some. Then he hands Felix nearly new boots that fit. Felix, baffled, asks where he got them, and Barney admits he traded food for them because people should “have something good in their life at least once.” Though astounded by Barney’s generosity, Felix believes he has more good things in his life than Barney or the other children. 

In the print shop, Felix and Barney hear voices outside. Spying through a window, they see Jewish people wearing armbands escorted by a Nazi soldier. One Jewish person asks the soldier where they’re going, and the Nazi soldier says, “Countryside […] Much food. Easy work.” Felix asks Barney whether they can go to the countryside too. Barney, horrified, says no. Felix, thinking his parents must be in the countryside, resolves that once he’s given his story to the Nazi officer, he’ll ask where in the countryside his parents are. Then he’ll leave and take Zelda with him.

Barney enters an apartment without knocking. Felix, following, sees “a Jewish candlestick, the type that holds a row of candles,” which looks like someone has stomped on it. Barney says it’s his friends’ apartment. Felix supposes the friends forgot to lock their doors when they traveled to the countryside.

In the next room, Felix sees special equipment and realizes they’re in “a dentist’s surgery.” Barney is rifling the cupboards for syringes and “small bottles filled with liquid.” When Felix asks, Barney explains it’s an anesthetic and that children shouldn’t touch it, because it’s dangerous—if you take too much you “go into a very deep sleep and never wake up.”

Barney and Felix enter a bathroom and find water in the tub and toilet tank. Barney tells Felix to go find food in the kitchen while he fills some buckets. In the kitchen is a toddler covered in blood in a highchair. When Felix screams, Barney comes running. Felix, sobbing, says you shouldn’t kill children and demands to know why the parents didn’t “do something.” Barney hugs him and says that parents can’t always protect their children, no matter how hard they try.

Barney says that Felix’s parents “loved” him and “did everything they could” to save him. Confused by Barney’s use of the past tense, Felix asserts that he’s going to find them in the countryside. Sighing, Barney admits that the countryside is a lie—the Nazis are transporting Jewish people to kill them.

When Felix demands to know how Barney knows this, Barney explains that an escapee from the “death camps” came to the ghetto to warn people. Felix shouts that Barney would have warned the travelers they saw earlier if his story were true. Barney, struggling with his emotions, says that no one would have believed him any more than they believed the escapee, whom the Nazis murdered—and Barney must survive to care for the children. Felix tries to invent a story about how his parents could have escaped, but he keeps picturing the dead toddler. He recalls Barney’s syringes and wishes he could use one to “never wake up and never feel this bad again.”